1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stretchable and water resistant laminated fabric composition and a process for making such a fabric composition. This fabric composition is specially useful for making swimsuits, and more particularly a bra portion of a woman swimsuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional woman swimsuits are often provided with a bra portion having lateral gathers or similar artifices for enhancing the three-dimensional shaping effect. They are also often provided with an inner lining to ensure sufficient opacity. These characteristics however tend to flatten the breast, and the inner lining is also often uncomfortable.
Various laminating and molding processes have been proposed in the art, for providing fabrics entering in the making of woman swimsuits without inner lining. But the fabrics resulting from these processes have no elasticity or stretchability, or yet loose them rapidly over wear. Furthermore, these fabrics are generally thick and uncomfortable.
Known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,113 (HYAMS et al.), which describes padded straps for brassieres for improving the comfort, wear, washability, the look and feel. Preferably, the fabric entering in the making of the straps has given resilience properties, as for example with nylon-lycra materials. The selected pieces of fabric are bonded and laminated together to form a moldable, integral piece. Once the laminating step is finished, the laminated piece is subjected to a molding step under pressure for shaping the laminated piece as desired. The patent alludes that the bonding of the pieces of fabric may be carried out with a toluene-based adhesive, without however giving any further indication. The snag is that such a type of adhesive may affect and particularly reduce the stretchability and elasticity properties of the fabric, which is highly undesirable for a swimsuit. Moreover, the patent does not make a single consideration regarding the use of an adhesive for leaving the stretchability properties of the fabric substantially intact, especially once the laminating step is achieved.
Also known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,300 (RUMON et al.), which describes the use of an adhesive based on a polyurethane prepolymer suitable for bonding fabric materials. The adhesive has good resistance to high temperature, humidity and sustained UV radiation. As mentioned in the patent, the polyurethane may be used in conjunction with solvents such as toluene and ketone. However, like the previous case, the patent does not make a single consideration regarding the stretchability properties of a laminated fabric.
Also known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,668 (MINNICK), which describes a flexible laminate involving the use of a copolyetherester resin for obtaining laminated pieces made of aromatic polyamide resin fibres. U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,322 (JACARUSO et al.) describes a laminated product suitable for making molded bra cups, which is durable, soft and strong. Also known in the art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,225,768 (GALITZKI et al.); 3,616,013 (BOCCHI); 3,684,639 (KEBERLE et al.); 3,867,248 (BAUER); 4,036,924 (SHISHOO et al.); 4,048,001 (REMLEY et al.); 4,109,543 (FOTI); 4,258,093 (BENEDYK); 4,287,143 (SEARS Jr.); 4,384,083 (BAKER); 4,432,364 (MARTINI); 4,435,458 (HILL); 4,637,851 (UENO et al.); 4,916,755 (FEIGENBAUM et al.); 5,154,659 (GLUCKIN); and Canadian patents nos. 692,541 (LOFTIN); 960,801 (HOWARD); and 1,195,802 (COLE et al.). These patents describe various fabric products, processes for making such products, etc., of which none attempts neither succeeds to settle the problem of leaving the stretchability properties of laminated and molded fabrics substantially intact, while being water resistant.